An on-line wash process for a gas turbine compressor is performed to clean the compressor of contaminates that may become attached to compressor blades during operation and that may drastically reduce efficiency of the compressor. After the on-line wash process of the gas turbine compressor, a purge may be performed on nozzle supply lines that may be utilized to supply wash to the compressor. The purge may reduce or eliminate de-mineralized or de-ionized water that may be collected in the nozzle supply lines during the on-line wash process. During the purge, low pressure water may exit the nozzles of the cleaning apparatus and flow into the compressor, impinging compressor blades. As the stream of water continues to impact the rotating compressor blades over a multitude of washes, it may form a stress riser from erosion on the surface of the blade. This erosion of the blade may typically lead to increased maintenance costs and/or a potentially catastrophic failure in the compressor. Thus, an apparatus is needed to prevent low pressure water from reaching the nozzles.
An off-line wash process for a gas turbine compressor is performed to more effectively clean the compressor of the attached contaminates. During the off-line wash process, detergent is added to water for removal of the contaminates that water alone cannot achieve. Additionally, an extensive amount of de-mineralized or de-ionized water is used to ensure the effectiveness of the wash and the optimization of performance recovery. De-mineralized and de-ionized water is expensive to process and often in limited supply at many sites. Operators are consequently forced to compromise between using more water than necessary to thoroughly complete a rinse or using too little water and leaving behind detergent residue, which may absorb into the blades and reduce performance of the compressor. In both cases, expense and waste is incurred. Thus, an apparatus is needed to analyze a termination time for the off-line wash process, indicating that the detergent has been fully rinsed from the compressor and that the rinsing of the off-line wash process is complete.